INDIANAPOLIS — The situation has gotten so desperate for the Colts at wide receiver that a street free agent who has not played for any team since last season is probably going to play a role, potentially a significant role, for Indianapolis on Sunday against the Buffalo Bills.

The star and the anchor of the Colts’ receiving corps, T.Y. Hilton, has missed the past two games with chest and hamstring injuries and likely needs more time to recover. Promising rookie Deon Cain was lost two weeks into training camp. Veteran Ryan Grant’s status is in doubt after he suffered an ankle injury against the New York Jets, and the Colts also lost Marcus Johnson for the season to a torn ligament in his right ankle.

Throw in a persistent problem with drops — which has afflicted nearly every skill position, not just the wide receivers — and a position group that was already a question mark behind Hilton when the season began, finds itself in desperate need of reinforcements. Indianapolis chose not to invest big money or a high draft pick in the position this offseason, and injuries have taken away the players expected to handle the load.

“It’s definitely weird how it’s happening,” Johnson said. “It’s definitely part of the game, but when it happens to one group like it’s happening right now, it’s confusing, it’s tough on the team.”

A Colts offense that has been forced to rely on it's quarterback more than any other team in the NFL — Andrew Luck has thrown more passes in the first six weeks of a season, 288, than anyone in NFL history — is trying to get the ball to an unproven, embattled group that has changed on a weekly basis.

“The one good thing is you never have any tendencies,” Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni joked. “That’s looking at it on the bright side. … It’s a hard thing to kind of not know, have some unknowns about who’s going to go in, but we do feel like we know what the guys we do have playing, what they’re good at, and how we can highlight what they’re good at.”

Dontrelle Inman, the fifth-year veteran Indianapolis signed this week to replace Johnson on the roster, fits that bill.

Sirianni and Frank Reich discovered Inman, a product of the CFL, when they were in San Diego with the Chargers. Under their tutelage, Inman developed into a devastating deep threat in the Chargers offense who caught 58 passes for 810 yards and four touchdowns in 2016, after Reich had left for Philadelphia.

The Chargers traded Inman to Chicago in the middle of the 2017 season, and after a 23-catch season with the Bears, Inman went unsigned in free agency and did not participate with a team in training camp.

But he knows Reich and Sirianni’s system well enough to step in and play right away.

“Dontrelle’s a solid wide receiver who’s made a lot of plays in the NFL,” Sirianni said. “He knows our system, he knows the terminology, he’s always been a really quick processor.”

Inman also offers a young Colts receiving corps experience and proven big-play ability.

Always a big-play threat, Inman has averaged 13.8 yards per reception in his career, and his skill set at 6-3 and 205 pounds has always fit Reich and Sirianni’s system perfectly.

“We had some good receivers in San Diego, and we’re like, 'Man, this guy runs these couple routes unlike anybody else we have,'” Sirianni said. “I won’t reveal what routes those are.”

Desperate for experience at the position, Indianapolis signed Inman rather than promote fifth-round pick Reece Fountain, who has spent the entire season on the practice squad.

Reece Fountain, wide receiver, during organized team activities at the Colts Complex, Indianapolis, Wednesday, May 23, 2018. (Photo: Robert Scheer/IndyStar)

“I’m not gonna lie, I’m a little surprised by that,” Fountain said. “It’s just for the better of the team. The only thing I can do is just prepare, and be ready, attacking each week as if I’m playing."

Fountain, who lines up at the same position as Hilton, can play any position in the Colts offense, but the learning curve has been steep for a product of FCS school Northern Iowa. While Fountain has made some progress, Sirianni made it clear that the rookie is still in the process of being able to contribute to the 53-man roster.

Until Hilton and the other receivers get healthy, the Colts will continue to try to find answers at receiver by spreading the ball around.

“At some level, guys rotate through,” Reich said on Monday. “In this offense, we do that anyway. I mean we feel like we got good depth and we rotate guys around and we spread the ball around.”